In particular, Duke coach David Cutcliffe. Kelly said Cutcliffe is a “wise man,” and visited him in the spring. He said the Duke coach told him the year off after he was fired was the best thing to happen to him and that Kelly needed to make sure his next job is a great fit and that he’s aligned well with who he will be working with.

That job, Kelly said, was at UCLA.

Kelly also gave a shout out to John Wooden as a coach to emulate, probably earning points with boosters in the room.

Then, when he was asked about his offense, in particular could UCLA people expect to see the same one that he ran at Oregon, Kelly turned that into a comedic moment.

“No those players have all graduated,” Kelly said, getting laughs.

He said that it wasn’t just about the scheme that made an offense work.

“I think whatever you do, whatever scheme you run, has to be tailored to the personnel around you,” he said. “I still think the game of football comes down to the fundamentals. Can you block? Can you tackle? Can you catch? Can you make cuts? There’s always going to be great schemes out there, I think it’s the coach’s responsibility to fit the scheme to the personnel he has.”

More important,, Kelly said, is that the personnel has to fit together.

“I believe football is about three things,” he said. “I think it’s about relationships, friendships and championships. And when your team trusts each other and will go out there and lay it on the line for each other because they know everyone on the right of them or the left of them, that leads to championships.”

Kelly was mentioned for several jobs other than UCLA. He was contacted by Florida and Tennessee and was on the wish list of pretty much any fan base who needed a coach.

But as he said, it was about the fit.

“I think the people,” he told the Pac-12 Network on why he chose UCLA. “When you formulate your decision, there is a lot of brick and mortar everywhere. There are a lot of really good places out there. But when you finally get to meet the people who are associated with UCLA, whether it’s Troy Aikman or (Bruins athletic director) Dan Guerrero or Chancellor (Gene) Block, I think it just felt like a good fit to me.”